Book 4, Chapter 31: Contact

Chen Chuan didn’t waste his last stretch of time on the cruise ship. Aside from enjoying some of the entertainment to relax, he spent the rest of his time developing his Heartborn Forces.

Right now, Sanshou was his main fighting style. The firm and yielding forces he had developed for it were already enough. As for grappling and takedown-type refined forces, they could come later, since he was only using them for support.

Chen Chuan could take his time developing them. He needed to fight against different opponents to continue understanding things, increasing his knowledge, and perfecting his Heartborn Forces.

Yejian Hong had been a great opponent. The eldest disciple himself wasn’t

that

strong, but the mental energy supporting him had been in control of his body. Its use of refined force was amazing, but due to the limits enforced by the body, it couldn’t display all of its power. This made Yejian Hong a great opponent.

It was unfortunate that there was only one of him.

Once Chen Chuan went back to Martial Valor University, he could ask Hongfu to help him, but she had only mastered Martial Valor University’s refined forces, while what Chen Chuan needed was to experience different fighting styles and distinct refined forces. This was the only way for him to develop greater variety in his refined forces and enrich his fighting style.

With the foundation built by the All-Encompassing Force, Chen Chuan had endless possibilities, so his plan was to use different refined forces in different settings.

He had to take one step at a time, but this wasn’t a bad thing. He could see himself improving all the time and had the novel feeling of wanting to get stronger.

It was night. Under the starry sky, the cruise ship sailed forward. Chen Chuan could hear soothing music from the deck and the waves underneath him.

He stood by the rail and watched the stars in the sky. Even now, pure essence appeared occasionally, which meant that the gap in the World Ring had yet to be closed.

Chen Chuan didn’t intend to let the pure essence slip from his grasp. Even if the units the purity faction promised him should be enough for him, this thing was undoubtedly really beneficial for him. If he got more, he could save up on more time in his training.

After standing by the rail for a while, he went back to his room to meditate.

The moment he entered his room, he sensed something strange. He could hear a heartbeat, as if there was another person in the room.

He looked around and found that Dawncall was sleeping. There was no noise or movement in the room. Then, he shifted his gaze to the rectangle-shaped package he set by the side.

It contained the spine.

He went over and put his hand on it. The heartbeat vanished instantly, as if what he felt just now had been an illusion. Chen Chuan tried to sense it with his mind.

In an instant, he felt as if he had fallen into a dark, sticky ocean. A gigantic creature was in front of him.

The creature was asleep, but as if it sensed something, it started waking up.

Chen Chuan’s eyes sparkled with excitement, but he didn’t stay, because he wasn’t sure that he would not affect the other people in the cruise ship. He should only challenge this creature after going back. He pulled his mind back, and the sticky feeling vanished. Everything returned to normal.

When he observed his second self, he noticed that some parts of him had turned blurry, but after pulling out of the sticky water, he did not continue to blur more.

Chen Chuan went to the balcony and grabbed the door handle. There were dead insects on the floor outside. They had died just now. After examining them for a while, Chen Chuan shut the door and went to sit down in the training room.

After eight days on the ocean, the cruise ship returned to Jibei Road on the twenty-eighth of August.

It didn’t stop at Farsight Harbor, but went to the harbor of Central City’s Oceanway District.

Chen Chuan stared at the skyscrapers from his balcony. Even if he wasn’t wearing his Realm Pass, he could sense the domains with his mental energy.

But there was too much information assaulting his mind, and he couldn’t decipher anything. It ended up as noisy interference.

As for the hole in the sky, he could sense it even if he couldn’t see it. That might be where the gap in the World Ring was. Chen Chuan kept feeling like something was trying to crawl out, and it was causing his second self to blur, though the effects were faint.

This was because the depth of his mind was too great, which led to corruption trying to reach him. The Fu-Mu Entity was blocking off most of it, so it didn’t affect him too much.

Still, it caused him some discomfort after staring at it for too long, just like how a normal person felt while staring directly at the sun. They might be able to withstand the glare for some time, but they couldn’t keep staring at it.

Sensing the hole was also a type of mental training, but it wasn’t efficient, and it couldn’t compare to normal mental training methods. Only those who didn’t have any training resources or those who were born with great mental energy would use this training method. Even so, they might get into trouble due to corruption.

After staring for a while, Chen Chuan pulled his mind back and put on the Realm Pass given to him as a lead investigator.

He was instantly connected to Safe Shield, who said, “Hello, Lead Investigator Chen. I am here to serve you. The operations at the harbor are going smoothly, and the road is clear. Your limousine and security guards are waiting for you at the harbor.”

Chen Chuan grabbed his warm drink and took a sip. “Thank you, Safe Shield.”

“You’re welcome. I’m happy to serve.”

Chen Chuan patted Dawncall, and it immediately took flight to leave the cruise ship. A moment later, it was high in the air. Chen Chuan returned to his room and grabbed the luggage bag he had packed up a long time ago. Then, he walked out.

Since he had booked himself a first-class cabin, he was among the first to leave. The moment he got off the gangway, Safe Shield said, “An unidentified channel is trying to contact you. Search results indicate that they are from Gray Shell Office.”

“Gray Shell Office?” Chen Chuan asked.

Upon noticing his puzzlement, Safe Shield showed him everything about the organization.

Chen Chuan checked the description. Gray Shell Office was involved in a lot of businesses, and most of them were related to political activities, including protection, lobbying, crisis management, secret negotiations, international business activities, and others.

This organization was involved in the same things as high-ranking agent companies, but more targeted. Their main services were aimed at important politicians, children of company executives, and the executives themselves.

“Please identify the contact person,” Chen Chuan requested after reading.

A second later, Safe Shield responded. “Verified contact person: Ji Xinmin, administrative clerk of Gray Shell Office, Third Limit martial artist, male, thirty-five years old. The rest of his profile has been restricted due to a contract, and I am currently unable to extract more information. Would you like to apply for special permission from the department?”

“No need,” Chen Chuan rejected the offer.

The moment he saw Ji Xinmin’s name, he knew who he was, which also meant that Gray Shell Office was an organization under the refined training faction.

“Should I answer the call for you, Lead Investigator Chen?”

“Ignore it,” Chen Chuan answered.

***

Ji Xinmin noticed that the signal was cut off, which meant that the other party had rejected the call.

He scowled.

Since they had met with Chen Chuan at Yangzhi City, they hadn’t exchanged a way to connect using their Realm Passes.

It hadn’t bothered them at the time. If Chen Chuan didn’t agree to join the faction, they could use all their regular methods on him. Once he recognized the reality of the situation, he would come to them.

To their surprise, they received news after coming back that Chen Chuan had already joined the purity faction, so they could only give up on their plans.

They had thought that this would be the end of it, but a higher-up wanted them to contact Chen Chuan again, so they had to do it.

After some thinking, he tapped his Realm Pass and set a marker on a road before saying to his two companions, “He’s going to go back to Martial Order District, which requires him to pass by this road. We’ll wait for him there. Then, we’ll do this.”

He gave his companions a few more instructions. They nodded upon figuring out what Ji Xinmin wanted to do and rushed to their cars, which sped off right away.

***

Once Chen Chuan got off the cruise ship, he met up with his motorcade. The moment he settled down in his limousine, the motorcade started heading to his house in Martial Order District.

Chen Chuan checked the messages sent to him. First were some notifications from the Resolution Department. When he saw that no emergency missions had been assigned to him, he decided to set them aside for the moment.

Wu Han informed him that Wei Changan’s team arrived in Central City at the start of August.

He called Wu Han, and he only waited for a second before the call went through. With excitement evident in his voice, Wu Han asked, “You’re finally back, Chen Chuan?”

“I just left the ship,” Chen Chuan answered.

Just then, he received another call, and Safe Shield told him that it was the same person from before using another channel.

“Lead Investigator Chen, the contact person is two hundred meters behind you and is currently fast approaching. Safety protocol verification passed. Contact person has no criminal record or bounty. Emergency security measures not suggested.”

Chen Chuan took a look behind him and saw a sedan chasing after him. “Block all signals from this person.”

“Received. Blocked.”

***

Ji Xinmin’s expression turned dark when he heard the feedback from his signal, because he knew that he had been blocked. He notified his companions ahead. “Get ready. His motorcade is about to arrive.”

***

Soon after blocking the signal, Chen Chuan noticed a few cars positioning themselves horizontally on the road and blocking the entire road.

“Sir, some cars are blocking the road ahead. We don’t know what their goal is. Should we turn around?” Yu Xiao immediately asked.

“Have they stated their identities?” Chen Chuan asked.

“No.”

“Don’t need to avoid them, then. Ram into them,” Chen Chuan ordered.